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Monday, October 16, 2017

A final kittenpillar update

I went out and checked on the chrysalis in my peonies on Wednesday night and it looked like this.

It was going to be very cold Wednesday night so I feared that Toby wouldn't make it, so I didn't report on the fact that you could see the wings.Thursday night Toby looked like this

More cold nights were forecast, so I still worried but come Saturday..

I went and checked on Toby several times and I missed his/her departure (apparently you can tell the gender from the wings so if anyone knows monarchs you'll know if Toby is male or female) I've never looked closely at the chrysalis once it has hatched and it was so interesting to look at.

Unfortunately, Pickle did not make it. Pickle emerged with wings that would not straighten out. I feel more than a little guilty that I took him in and he never knew life outside but I'm trying to not let that get to me. I was trying to help and there was a very good chance that he wouldn't have even been able to form a chrysalis (aka he would have been eaten) if I had left him outside.

I enjoyed this quite a bit and will see what I can do about planting milkweed at my new house next spring.